The King's White Elephants

The King's White Elephants

On 8 November, near the end of the initial 30-day mourning period for the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, his herd of white elephants was brought to Bangkok to pay tribute to him.  

You can watch this raw video feed uploaded to YouTube by someone in Bangkok to see the pachyderms in action:

I'm bemused by the presence of the Highland piper.

The late King at one time possessed 10 white elephants, said to be more than any other king in Thai history.  Since the animals are considered highly auspicious, the fact that he had so many is seen as a testament to his kingly virtue.  

'White' elephants are of course not literally white.  They're grey like all elephants, but they have a number of pink markings.  The number and placement of the markings determines whether or not an individual can be ruled 'white.' The elephants in the above video clip are actually powdered to look uniformly pale.

All white elephants in Thailand are legally the property of the King.  Until the 1980s or 90s, the royal elephants lived on the grounds at Chitralada Palace, the late King's Bangkok home.  They were then moved upcountry to more comfortable and spacious quarters at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center in Chiang Mai.  This place can be visited.  Here's a link to its website: http://www.thailandelephant.org/en/royalstable.html.

The mystique of the white elephants has a long history in Thailand.  The basis of this may be religious.  The mount of the god Indra was a white elephant, albeit one with 5 heads.  White elephants are also found in temple murals in Thailand, like this one:

Credit: Wikipedia

Until 1917, a white elephant was featured on the flag of the Kingdom of Siam.  Legend has it that King Vajiravudh/Rama VI ordered its replacement with the current flag when a highly placed European visitor asked why there was a pig on the flag.  I rather like the old flag:

Credit: Wikipedia

Which flag do you prefer?  Please comment to let me know, either here, on the Lotus & Persimmon Facebook page, or in the Lotus & Persimmon gallery on Instagram.

Posted on 18/11/2016 by David Gemeinhardt Countries, Thailand 0

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